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CHAPTER X. 


1INOR MENTAL ABNORMALITIES IN CHILDREN AS OCCA- 
SIONED BY CERTAIN ERRONEOUS SCHOOL METHODS.' 


5 


By Dr. William O, Krohn, Psychologist, Illinois Eastern Hospital. 


| 
} 


| My discussion of this subject is based upon four distinct premises or proposi- 
‘ons, each of which is a clearly proven and fully demonstrated truth—a funda- 
‘ental principle—in some one of the various particular sciences. Itis not my 
‘arpose to endeavor to substantiate any particular theory of education. We are ~ 
ot trying to bring forth evidence in favor of any ‘‘fad” or ‘‘ism.” It is an 
nwelcome fact, but a fact, nevertheless, that mental abnormalities do exist in 
chool children. To what is this seeming mental disintegration due? We know 
hat in a large measure these mental abnormalities are the direct result of erro- 
eous school methods—the logical attainment of a pseudoeducation. 

‘The present paper is not at all concerned with the physical ills of the child, 
jany and serious as they are, due to improperly appointed schoolrooms. 
Schoolroom diseases” do exist, and the fact that they do exist is a stigma that 
ve should all hasten to eradicate. That a healthy, laughing, romping child 
ntering our modern school may be doing so at the probable expense of health is 
sad commentary upon our modern educational methods. Can you wonder that 
parent sometimes hesitates to give his child to the modern school when he 
/nows from observation that his dearly beloved child may come back to him at 
he end of a few years broken in heaith? Must the parent of to-day take along 
vith the modern school, possessing as it does so much that is excellent, utilizing 
‘sit does so many of the best educational facts and forces—must he needs take 
lso those factors that make against rather than for the child’s health? Can you 
riticise the parent for sometimes halting at the schoolroom door and repeating 
o himself the question, ‘‘ What will it profit my child if he gain the whole world 
‘f knowledge and lose his health?” 

_ But in these latter days reforms are being made in regard to seating, ventila- 
ion, lighting, and heating, as well as provisions for exercise, recesses, and recre- 
tions, all of which goes to show the steadily growing belief of parents, teachers, 
| nd school officers in the dictum that ‘a ton of knowledge gained at the expense of 
' single ounce of health is far too dearly paid for.” Our schoolhouses are being 
etter builded, better equipped, and better appointed, so that as time advances 
he physical child—his health—will be more and more conserved. 

But the mental abnormalities of school children, resulting from erroneous, 
isfit methods, have occupied the thought and evoked the sympathy of compara- 
Pag 4 few, and for that reason I shall devote the entire time of this paper to the 
‘iscussion of these mental abnormalities, their causes, and how they may be 
Tadicated. 


1A paper read at the Washington (1898) meeting of the National Educational 
issociation, and published by the Commissioner of Education according to a . 
eae expressed in a resolution of the Association. 


14, "a 471 





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= p 3949 


A472 EDUCATIONAL REPORT, 1898-99. 




























law of heredity, in which we all believe to a greater or less degree. I mean thie 
law of heredity only in its more restricted but fully established sense—namel 
the acquired characteéristics of the parent are not transmitted to the child. 

strong belief in heredity has become so general and so widespread that the dire} 
results of descent are looked for with supreme confidence. The good pare 
is supposed to have a good child, and the brilliant parent a brilliant child. Ye 


and not structural. They are the results of friction, struggle, social conditiong 
environment. The question of the underlying physical structure of the chil§ 
is quite different. Bone, muscle, nerve in their distribution are governed largel} 


and artificial acquirements. The father may be deaf and the mother a deaff- 
mute, but the child of these parents will have normal hearing and speech. } 
have made personal observation of-one family in which both parents were deaf 
yet their five children are perfectly normal as to hearing and speech. A mai 
may have his nose pushed to one side and the woman he marries may have suf . 
fered the same deformity, and yet the children born to them will have perfectl 
straight noses. Both father and mother may be ‘‘star’” mathematicians—thife 
result of acquisition and study—but the children born to them may be unable tt 
go beyond the ‘‘rule of three.” Acquired characteristics are not transmitted}. 
They are functional qualities rather than organic attributes. As Dr. Oppenheimey 
says in his recent book: ‘‘ The doctrine of heredity, as commonly held, not only} 
is falsely applied to human descents, but also renders the wisest and best effortys 
of training unnecessary and useless. For if at birth the child’s bodily and mentafl 
organization is complete, if the characteristics of parents are handed down td 
offspring, then there the matter ends. Every remarkable parent would hay =f 
equally remarkable children, and every deficient person would curse his descend+ 
ants with a like deficiency; work, training, striving after noble ideals would be) 
useless and silly.” All individual efforts at self-improvement would be worthless) 
every individual impulse would be incapabie of realization, every endeavor of 
parent or teacher would be at an end. Not a single educational fact, not a single 
educational force but would fail of fruition. 

But education is not a matter of such utter hopelessness. Pedagogical efforts; 
are not doomed to such complete barrenness of results. Tosuch a hopeless philost 
ophy this world would be a dull blank and man little more than a grinning skull§. 
If one really observe the laws of growth and mental development as they become 
actualized in every child he will see that there is a more wholesome, roseat¢ 
philosophy of education. Happily, then, the child does not grow according tq 
some hard and fast rule that has been implanted in him before he was born. The 
old Calvinistic form of pedagogy, called heredity by Darwin, has given place te 
the counter dogma of liberally minded men, as Rousseau, who says: ‘‘ Everything 
is good as it comes from the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in thé 
hands of man.” While both of these dogmas are too extreme—both the old Cal4, 
vinistic and the more recent liberalistic—the sum of the whole matter is that} 
entirely too much dependence has been placed upon heredity in its commonly} 
accepted significance. Parents and teachers educate the minds, train the bodies,} 
and develop the morals of the children under their care ‘‘not so much by what 
their ancestors were but what they themselves do and think.” In the meantime, 
in any case of mental abnormality in the child, the teacher will shift the blame 
on the parent and the parent in turn on the teacher until finally, with their utte#: 
lack of cooperation, the psychopathically disposed child really becomes mentall¥7 
disintegrated and quite degenerate. 

In how far does the school help to develop mental and nervous abnormalities 
when they could and should be checked and obliterated? In how far does thép 


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7 


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; MINOR MENTAL ABNORMALITIES IN CHILDREN. 473 


{ 
} 


school give rise to new evils that affect the mental power of the child—evils that 
would be entirely unnecessary were the courses of study, the daily programme, 
and schoolroom methods more fitting and better adapted to the child? This vital 
question will be answered more fully after our other premises have been set forth. 
In the light of the true conception of the doctrine of heredity we are warranted, 
however, in saying that we have usually taken too much for granted in believing 
that the child of 6 years of age as he knocks at our schoolroom door is more 
developed than is really the case. We certainly take too much for granted with 
reference to the knowledge possessed by the children we are called upon to edu- 
cate. There isin fact next to nothing of real educational value the knowledge 
of which it is safe to assume at the beginning of school life. The child does not 
inherit in any form the knowledge acquired by his parents, and we must proceed 
in his education by bringing into exercise all methods of appeal to the child’s 
mind. We must be prepared to educate the whole child and not take for granted 
that a certain segment of the circle of his intellectual life has been measureably 
formed, fashioned, or developed by heredity. We must so place our array of 
eductional forces that every form of the brain activity may be aroused and that 
appeal be made to every mental potency. If we take for granted that a certain 
parce! of knowledge is bestowed upon a child as an heirloom by his ancestors we 
are creating a possibility for mental abnormalities to appear in the particular 
child thus partially neglected. 

My second premise I take from the domain of genetic psychology. It is alsoa 
firmly established, clearly demonstrated principle—an ultimate fundamental 
truth in the science that has given it its being. This principle is: Mental develop- 
ment in the child occurs by stages—by periods. Just as the entire body is not 
growing at any one time, so all the mental powers are not unfolding and growing 
at the same time. In bodily development growth settles for awhile on one set of 
muscles, one set of organs, and then another, and another, until the entire body 
is developed. Likewise, there is a nascent period for each mental faculty. 

The first mental power to develop is sensation. At birth a child possesses but 
two senses—touch and temperature. They are the only windows of the soul open 
to receive the impressions that Mother Nature has to bestow upon him. <A few 
hours after birth vision is added, then hearing, and after some days taste and 
smell, followed by the muscle sense and the others in turn. 

The second epoch in the mind’s process of unfolding isthe memory stage. This 
is the period when the child is characterized by a prodigious power of remember- 
ing detail. A single hearing of rhyme or rule of song or catchy phrase is suffi- 
cient to insure its correct reproduction. We are all aware how much more 
difficult it is for us to commit rhymes or rules now than it was during our second 
or third year of school life. 

The third epoch is the period of the growth of the imagination. Children love 
to live in a world of make-believe; they love to play circus, church, or school. 
How easy it is for the child to assume the réle of Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, 
Robinson Crusoe, or Buffalo Bill! During this period there is developed a mania 
which frequently occasions grave concern to parents. I refer to children’s lies. 
Now, the lie of the child, it must be remembered, is by no means the same despi- 
cable moral offense as is the deceitful lie of the adult. It grows largely out of his 
desire to excite wonder. It isa bit of incipient research. He tries it, and if it 
works he tries it again; if not, he quits. But, in these rovings of the imagination 
he is not attempting primarily to deceive. 

The fourth period is characterized by the peculiar activity of the powers of 
judgment and comparison. This in turn by the period of curiosity. Curiosity 
must be properly developed. No child whose curiosity is throttled and starved 
will ever become a good reasoner. He must first ask questions and reasons of 
others in order to be able to ask questions and reasons of himself. 


ATA EDUCATION REPORT, 1898-99. 


I have thus outlined the periods of mental development for the purpose of. sho: - 
ing that a well organized course of study must be in harmony with these pro- 
cesses of development in order to be successful. More depends upon the order 
of studies assigned than upon the contents of the studies themselves. You have . 
heard of the experiment made some years ago by four teachers in the city of Paris, 
in the Lycée (the school for boys), who asked permission of the minister of educa- 
tion that each of them might give to his 25 pupils the same studies prescribed in 
the required course, but in a different order, an order believed by them to accord 
with the natural development of a boy’s mind rather than in the arbitrary order 
demanded by cast-iron law. These boys completed all of the required studies in 
this natural order in three and a half years, instead of seven years, the time 
assigned for the completion of the course as regularly given in the Lycée. Upon 
examination they were found to be equally proficient mentally, and above the 
average in physical development, as compared with those who had spent seven 
years in going over the same ground. As teachers we should have constant 
regard for the great principles of mental waste and mental economy. The course 
of study should fit the child; the child should not be jammed into an arbitrary 
curriculum, sustaining no relation to the natural order in which his powers of 
mind and body unfold. 

In some of our schools seven or eight years are still devekee to the study of 
arithmetic; yet we know that all of arithmetic can be taught the child and better 
taught, in the years between 7}and 10. This is admirably done, to my personal 
knowledge, in at least 150 schools, saving much time and energy, and making room 
for important studies which would otherwise be crowded out. Now we all know 
that the time to educate any mental capacity is the time at which that particular 
mental power is most rapidly growing. The time to educate memory is when ~ 
memory is most rapidly developing; the time to educate the senses is when the 
senses are most alert—i. e., when they are rapidly unfolding. We would not have 
‘‘ diseased imaginations” in our school children if we would only properly culti- 
vate imagination when it is most rapidly growing. A host of mental abnormali- 
ties in school children can be traced directly to the fact that the course of study 
is not formed to correspond to the child’s various periods of mental development. 

If at any period of mental development, the proper mental food, the proper 
school study is not given, then the mental faculty that would otherwise grow so 
rapidly and unfold so perfectly (had it been properly fed and exercised) will be 
stunted in its growth and in all probability atrophy, because of disuse. The 
child’s whole mental development will thus be impaired anda whole line of mental 
abnormalities will present themselves at a time too late for their complete eradi- 
cation. Especially serious are the mental abnormalities which result from 
improper and insufficient training of the senses. All of the ‘‘ raw material” of 
thought comes through the senses. Allof theraw material acted upon by memory, 
imagination, judgment, comparison, and reasoning is gained through sense experi 
ences. It can be said without fear of successful contradiction that if the educ el 
tion of the senses be neglected all subsequent education will partake of a vagueness, 
haziness, and inefficiency which will never admit of complete cure. From me 
sense-error any other conceivable error may arise. And yet how many methods 
of instruction there are so inopportune and inefficient that they really dwarf th 
senses. Train the senses of the child and the rest of the mental development wil 
almost take care of itself. The truly successful teacher is the sense teacher, for 
she is trying not merely to impart knowledge but also to develop mental force. 
In cultivating the powers of sense of the pupil we accomplish four things for him, 
each one of which is vitally important: (1) We make his knowledge more accurate 
and clearly defined; (2) wemake his knowledge more comprehensive and complete; 
(3) we develop his mental power; (4) we make his acquisition of knowledge pleas- 


MINOR MENTAL ABNORMALITIES IN CHILDREN. A475 


ant and delightful because the natural order is followed—“ first the blade, then 
the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” . 

My third premise I take from the domain of abnormal psychology. It is this: 
The process of mental disintegration attacks the higher, more complicated, and 
more recently developed faculties first, and the simplest and those earliest devel- 
_ oped are the last to be affected. This premise requires but brief discussion, for its 
application is at once seen. It teaches us that when mental disintegration once 
sets in, it is the finest mental faculties that first fall prey. These minor abnor- 
maities are serious then from the beginning. They may not be observed and 
made certain of until terrible havoc has been wrought. Reason, both deductive 
and inductive, may have crumbled and fallen into decay, and imagination, memory 
and the powers of sense be as perfect as before. It is necessary to be con- 
stantly on the alert for even the minor mental abnormalities in children so that 
mental disintegration of the highest mental faculties may not proceed too far 
before remedial measures are sought and applied. If the closest observation is 
not maintained in reference to pupils in whom minor mental abnormalities are 
even merely suspected, the loss may become irreparable. 

Inasmuch as fatigue is the most common source of danger in this connection, 
close watch should be made for fatigue signs. Some important discoveries have 
- been made with reference to fatigue and its influence upon mental and physical 
development. Fatigue is a physical poison, and bodily fatigue always induces 
mental fatigue. The nature of the chemical poison generated by fatigue has been 
investigated by the Russian chemist Wedensky, as well as by Maggiori and 
Mosso, in Italy. Overstrain at school, by producing fatigue, may be the occasion 
of destruction and disintegration of bodily tissue, and also cause serious and 
permanent mental defect. The best period of the entire day, both with respect to 
mental quickness and mental vigor, is between the hours of 8 and 10.15 o’clock in 
the morning; the worst is between 11 and 12 0’clock. The period between 1 and 
2.30 o’elock in the afternoon is the third best, while that between 3 and 4 o’clock 
is second best. The heaviest school work should be assigned to the hours when 
the child’s mind acts most vigorously and with the greatest quickness, and the 
lightest work should be so arranged as to come at the period of greatest mental 
depletion. 

The teacher and parent should be especially observant with reference to 
‘‘abnormal nerve signs” as occasioned by fatigue, misfit methods, and inoppor- 
tune studies. The more common abnormal nerve signs that presage danger are 
disturbances of balance, twitching of hands and face, eye movements, postures of 
the head and hands, irritability, inattention, excitability. If the child slouches 
and shows no exact symmetry of balance, if the voice is of poor tone, if he can 
not fix his eyes well, but-looks about by moving the eyes and not the head; if 
there is a bagginess of the underlids of the eyes, if he be inattentive and devoid 
of interest in the usual school occupations, if his response in action be slow and 
uncertain, one may be assured that such a child is fatigued to the point of danger. 

Again, since we know the order in which the mental faculties disintegrate, and 
we do, we may know how far the mental disintegration has proceeded. If reason- 
ing only be affected, the child is not suffering as much from mental abnormality 
as if the memory, judgement, or imagination be diseased. His malis not so deep 
seated as it would be in the latter case. This is a point of much value, for if we 
know just how far the processes of mental disintegration have proceeded, we 
know best what occupations and methods we are to employ in order to counteract 
the disease. 

My fourth and last premise is taken from the province of physiological psychol- 
ogy. It is the principle of localization of brain function. By this we mean that 
not all parts of the brain surface respond to the same stimuli and give birth 


476 EDUCATION REPORT, 1898-99. 


to the same kind of sensations. Neither are all parts of the brain cortex con- 
cerned in sending forth motor impulses of the same group or class. We know, 
for example, that any excitation of the nervous elements in the back part of the 
head give rise to visual sensations. It makes little difference whether they come 
through the eye or not—a slight mechanical jar at the back of the head is suffi- 
cient to cause one to see ‘‘stars.” The brain center concerned in moving the 
finger is entirely distinct and separate from the one concerned in moving the arm. 
The outer gray rind or cortex of the brain is therefore a very complex organ, or 
rather, it is more like a very complicated keyboard, the responses coming in from 
hose parts of the body that are in direct relation to certain specific forms of 
sensation. As Professor Hering, of Austria, says, ‘‘The different parts of the 
brain hemispheres are like a great tool box with a countless variety of tools. 
Each single element of the cerebrum is a particular tool. Consciousness may be 
likened to an artisan whose tools gradually become so numerous, so various, sO 
specialized, that he has for every minutest detail of his work a tool that is espe- 
cially adapted to perform just that precise kind of work very easily and accurately. 
If he loses one of his toois, he still possesses a thousand tools with which to do the 
same work, though under disadvantages both with reference to adaptability and 
the time involved. Should he happen to lose the use of these thousand also, he 
might retain hundreds with which to do the work still, but under greatly 
increased difficulty. He must needs have lost avery large number of his tools if 
certain actions become absolutely impossible, but the loss of a single tool is in 
every case just that much of a disadvantage.” This quotation translated from 
Hering states very clearly the exact physical basis of education. If the child is 
to have full use of all the nerve celisof his brain cortex, they must be developed— 
educated—by use, by actiyity. If they are not brought into action by occupa- 
tion, sense experiences, mental employ, they atrophy. 
Now, at birth the child possesses all the brain cells it will ever haye. Brain 
cells do not proliferate after birth. If they are not exercised they entirely drop 


out of existence—they die. The problem before us is to educate the entire brain’ 


of the child—it is given him for that purpose. We can give him this complete 
education only when we approach him through every one of his avenues of sense 
and educate himn into a wide range of motor activity. Life is growth. <A brain 
cell that does not grow is dead. A brain cell can not grow save through exercise 
and use. All the brain cells can be made to grow only when the school and home 
environment of the child is such as to appeal in every possible way and with suf- 
ficient energy to arouse the child’s many-sided activity. If a certain group of 
nerve cells is uneducated, is allowed to die, then the child becomes mentally and 
nervously abnormal in just so far. Brain disorderliness is due more to one-sided- 
ness of methods of education than to any other possible cause. 

Before closing I wish to make reference to certain specific cases: H. is a boy 
of fair complexion, ranks twenty-fourth in his class, and is continually losing his 
hold on school work. The signs of nervous exhaustion were overmobility; he 
was decidedly fidgety; fullness under each eye, indicating that he was a sufferer 
from headaches. These were the most noticeable, though other ‘‘ nerve signs” 
were present. It would be a mistake to leave a weak boy like that to do nothing 
all day, merely waiting for him to grow stronger. Such children are especially 
in need of education and training, but ‘‘a detailed study of abnormal nerve 
signs in the child will give assistance of practical value to those in charge of 
nervous and delicate children. They will reveal certain points to be aimed at in 
physical training. A knowledge of the brain disorderliness indicated by the 
signs will give plain hints as to the form of mental disorderliness likely to be met 
with in the pupil.” (1) For instance, wandering eye movements lead to inaccu- 
racy in copying work and in arithmetic; children with twitching finger move- 


rs 


MINOR MENTAL ABNORMALITIES IN CHILDREN. ATT 


ments have spontaneous thoughts arising that lead to mental confusion and 
inaccurate answers to questions, also interfere seriously with memory. The 
child slow in all movements and slouching is apt to be dull in mental action until 
his posture, attitude, and response are improved upon. ‘‘ Want of facial expres- 
sion, grinning, frowning, protrusion of the tongue, ill-balanced hand postures, 
want of motor control, are all cardinal signs of brain disorderliness.” The par- 
ent and teacher must patiently labor to remove such abnormal nerve signs and 
the brain disorderliness corresponding. Closely observing the circumstances 
under which each of the given signs most frequently subsides, one is enabled to 
carry on the best form of brain training. Nature study, in that it naturally calls 
all the child’s mental powers into activity, is of much more value as a corrective 
and educative force than books aione. How the ‘‘The Barefoot Boy” of Whit- 
tier is to be envied in this regard. 

Oh for boyhooa’s time of June, 

Crowding years in one brief moon, 

When all things I heard or saw, 

Me, their master, waited for. 

I was rich in flowers and trees, 

Humming birds and honey bees; 

For my sport the squirrel played, 

Plied the snouted mole his spade; 

For my taste the blackberry cone 

Purpled over hedge and stone; 

Laughed the brook for my delight 

Through the day and through the night, 

Whispering at the garden wall, 

Talked with me from fall to fall; 

Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, 

Mine the walnut slopes beyond, 

Mine, on bending orchard trees, 

Apples of Hesperides! 

Stillas my horizon grew, 

Larger grew my riches too; 

All the world I saw or knew 

Seemed a complex Chinese toy, 

Fashioned for a barefoot boy! 

By nature study in the best sense, however, is not meant teaching science, but 
scientific teaching. 

I can not refrain from calling attention to the very considerable danger arising 
from home study, especially in young children. In the so-called ‘“‘ study” at home 
the child becomes accustomed to certain irregularities of work that should never 
be cultivated. We should find out how much the child can do in a school day; 
let the child do such work at school, and let it feel that it leaves the school as the 
business man would his desk, with the business of the day done, and the satis- 
faction of well-deserved rest. Moreover, as Dr. Meyer has pointed out, ‘“work 
at home creates that martyr-spirit with which the abnormally conscientious pupils 
pride themselves on having so much work to do, and on having to avoid company 
and society. These children are craving for admiring sympathy, and do this later 
in life, to the disadvantage of those who live up to more rational and sanitary 
rules.” 

Further, I must say that I have never seen a case of brain disorderliness that 
was not benefited by physical training. Evidence is available on this point from 
the comparison of a large number of pupils of schools with and without physical 
training. Physical training of the right sort, properly adapted to the child, tends 
to improve his brain condition, either preventing or removing disorderliness in 
motor and in mental action, and promotes healthy activity in both connections. 
This is absolutely true of children well-made in body, as well also of those in some 
slight degree below normal. A casein point: You may have in your school a 


A478 EDUCATION REPORT, 1898-99. 


child whose mental processes are slow and limited, though fairly accurate. You 
ask him a question; his answer is slow in coming. You can best quicken the 
mental processes of such a child by quickening the interaction of his eye, ear, 
and hand by games of competition, such as baseball or tennis, where the action 
must be quick or failure result. 

I have thus briefly considered some of the causes of nervous and mental abnor- 
malities—how they could and should be checked. The school is not alone guilty, 
but only accessory. Itis indeed distressing to the patriot and humanitarian to 
perceive how the mass of nervous evils, and at the same time mental and moral 
weaknesses and sins, increase in the people and how mahy are followed by these 
abnormalities from the cradle to the grave. 





